Indefinite (Salvation #6)(20)

I laugh once. “You can’t even say the words.”

“Marry me,” he says quickly.

“What?”

“You heard me. Marry me. Marry me right now. We’ll go to Vegas or wherever you go to get married.”

I rear back as if he’s slapped me. “Wow, Quinn, why don’t you romance me a little harder, you fucking asshole. I don’t know that any woman has ever heard such a fantastic proposal before. Nothing says love like a fight with a demand of marriage at the end.”

“What do you want, Ashton? Do you want babies? I’ll give you a hundred. Do you want your own lab? I’ll find a way to build you one!”

“That’s not the issue!” I grip my hair and scream. “You’re too late. You had every opportunity to love me, build me a lab, or give me a hundred babies, and you chose not to. You discard me every single time. You let me go because it’s too hard to hold on. So, no, I don’t want to marry you.” The tears fall from my eyes freely. I hate that I’m breaking apart in front of him, but I can’t stop it. It hurts too damn much.

“What, are you going to marry the guy who knocked you up? You’re going to run off with the first guy who does what you want? Even knowing your heart still beats for me? That your breathing accelerates when I’m close because you fucking need me. You can have your child with some guy, but you’ll always wish it was with me.”

I raise my hand back to slap him, but he grabs my wrist before I can connect. “Get out!”

He releases my hand and touches my cheek with tenderness. “No, fragolina. I won’t.”

I stare at him with a steady stream of tears. “Why? Why won’t you let me be?”

“Because I love you.” His fingers slide across my lips. “You can hit me. You can tell me to leave. You can scream or claw my eyes out or anything else you want, but I’m not leaving you. I’ve done enough of that. You love me, Ashton, all the asshole parts and the ones that make you crazy because you and I are right for each other.”

“Look, you might be some badass navy SEAL who can read people and whatever, but you do a shit job of reading me, and you need to leave before we both say something we’ll both regret.”

He brings his fingers down my neck. The rough tips trace the slope of my shoulders, making their way lower against my arm to my hand so he can interlace them with mine. “I can read you better than I can read myself. I see you when I close my eyes. I feel you even when I do everything I can not to. Your perfume is fucking embedded in my nose so there’s no escaping you.”

My heart is racing as his touch and scent surround me. Quinn’s lips inch nearer, his blue eyes grow darker the closer he gets. “Don’t kiss me.”

“Don’t fight me.”





10


Ashton





I try to step back, but instead of pushing off him, the fingers of my free hand wrap around the back of his neck. “I hate you,” I say the words without any conviction.

“You love me, and I fucking love you. Kiss me, Ashton.”

His hands tangle in my hair, holding me right where he wants me. “No.”

“Why not, fragolina? What’s wrong?”

This. Him. The fact that we’re doing this. I should be ignoring him, not all worked up and unable to stay away from him.

“You,” I say with the anger that’s building. “You being here is what’s wrong.”

Now I’m beyond pissed. This isn’t fair. He is making all of this a problem. When he was in the desert, I was just fucking fine. If he were in Virginia Beach, like he’s supposed to be, I would be okay. I could go about my damn day, have my baby, and not think about him. But, no, he won’t let that happen.

“Good.”

“Good?”

Quinn’s lips brush against my ear. “When you’re angry, you’re honest, so be pissed off and tell me why you’re upset?” Then he takes the lobe in his teeth, and I would fall if his arms weren’t holding me up. “Is it because you want me? Is it because you still love me, and now that I’m here . . . you can have me?”

“It’s because you’re a bastard.”

He softly chuckles. “That’s true, but I’m the man who is standing here.”

“For how long?”

That’s the million-dollar question. He says he’s here, but he’s been here before, and I’m well aware of how that turned out.

“Until you’re either coming with me or I’ve lost you completely. But, either way, you’re in for the fight of your life because I’m not running off.”

I want to fight. Every part of me wants to reject him, but I can’t. I won’t deny him again or tell him to get out. So, I crash my lips to his in a searing kiss.

It’s as though time stops the moment we touch. I hold his head to mine, pressing my body to his as though he was a tree and I was the vine. Quinn pulls me tighter as we both drown in one another.

Our tongues move in tandem, teeth gently biting at the other’s lips as we fight for and against for dominance. I can’t draw air in fast enough, but it’s okay because he’s keeping me alive. His fingers tangle in my hair, tightening just enough for me to feel pressure and his need.